The Basic Conspiracy Behind All Conspiracies?

We are exploited on a cosmic scale, we are the proletariat of the demiurge-executioner, slaves exiled into a world that is viscerally subjected to violence; we are the dregs and sediment of a lost heaven, strangers on our own planet.
— Jacques Lacarriere, The Gnostics

 On the eve of a new millennium all humanity appears to be going through a time of dangerous transition and instability.

The old and accepted theories are just not working anymore. From all sides we hear men and women claiming ‘this’ or ‘that’ group or ideology is responsible for the plight of the modern world.

Without doubt there are many ‘conspiracies’ at work on all levels of society. And yes, there are many powerful secretive groups lurking behind national and international events.

But, is there a hidden factor common to all the identifiable crimes, conspiracies and manipulative cabals plaguing human existence on this planet?

 Man: The Animal

Our age is one in which the materialist outlook dominates. Even “consciousness,” the economist J.K. Galbraith said, “is a byproduct of material forces.”

This official view of Man, propagated by intellectuals of all professions, is that the human being is, basically, a material entity, a form of complex machine. Just a talking animal. As such, his actions are determined by a variety of causes, to be analysed on various levels: physiological, chemical, biological, or even sociological and psychological. Accordingly, Man does not have any purpose, but only reacts to stimuli. The difference between a human being and a robot is only complexity and materials.

Arthur Koestler captured this view in these words from his The Age of Longing:

“…what one calls a ‘person’ was after all merely an assembly of bits and qualities and odours and so on; apart from those bits and qualities, the person did not exist, was merely an illusion, and vanished into nothingness.”

This ‘scientific’ analysis of Man is the foundation of all philosophies, theories, programs and conspiracies seeking to control, dominate and forcibly ‘perfect’ human life.

The German philosopher Wilhelm Wundt wrote in the late 19th century that Man is only the highest of animals. In his view, Man is devoid of spirit and self-determinism, being basically just a stimulus response animal.

Wundt laid the basis for the principles of conditioning later developed by Ivan Pavlov and the American behavioural scientists. Schools were to be orientated toward the socialisation of the child rather than toward the development of the intellect and the continuation of culture; and for the growth of a society increasingly devoted to the satisfaction of sensory desires at the expense of any transcendent values.

Building on the foundation laid by Wundt, American psychologist Dr. B.F. Skinner, who worked closely with the CIA, specialised in control of human behaviour. Skinner wanted to discover how to transform the human being into a ‘more effective’ stimulus response conditioned reflex machine. He justified his ‘work’ in the following terms:

“My image in some places is of a monster of some kind who wants to pull a string and manipulate people. Nothing could be further from the truth. People are manipulated; I just want them to be manipulated more effectively.”

Of course, Skinner did not believe he – himself – needed to be controlled. Who can control the controllers? The same old question. Rather, he should control others. We are all equal, wrote George Orwell, except those who are more equal. These, however, should be hidden.

Today, as a result of this materialist view, subliminal messages, drugs, shocks, starvation, aversion therapy, hypnosis… all the diabolical methods of mind control are valid ‘scientific’ techniques for the subjugation of individuals. Making them suitable subjects of modern consumer society. Human robots who faithfully conform to the dictum: ‘Work, Consume, Breed, Obey and Die.’

This view of the human being is also behind the dream of a controlled and planned New World Order. It is the basis of monopoly capitalism with its vision of the faceless, universal consumer. In the age of Big Brother, Man the animal must be tamed and held in check by a system of laws backed by an ever present threat of punishment. Market forces and the rule of law improve society and mould human consciousness, or so the ruling elites want us to believe.

Throughout the twentieth century scientists, thinkers and revolutionaries sought to solve the problems of injustice and human suffering by addressing the social, political and economic aspects of life.

By altering the environment, human consciousness was to be changed. Man’s material and physical needs being the principle motivators of his actions. Modern civilisation hasn’t bothered to discover what Man really is; it has simply tried to treat him as a rational, mechanical soulless being. Reducing all things to the lowest common denominator and placing supreme value in the individual’s limited ‘everyday consciousness’ and egoistic ‘everyday behaviour’.

Missing Dimension

The British writer Colin Wilson observed: “Civilisations wreck when they lose control over their own complexity. And they begin to lose control the moment they begin to think in materialist categories: for ultimately, all power is spiritual power.”

What if Man is NOT a sophisticated, talking animal? Not a complex stimulus response mechanism? If the materialists of both the Left and the Right have got it wrong, then our entire modern world is built on a gigantic deception.

All the high civilisations of antiquity and all the great religious traditions agree Man is not a body. The ancient philosophers and prophets taught the reality of the spirit. This means you are not your body. Your true being is not your body. You have the potential to expand beyond the bounds of the small individual ego.

If Man is a spirit then there is something more to life. Improving society has to start by improving the individual. Not vice versa.

Consequently, this essential element in all spiritual traditions is not bondage but the ultimate freedom. The only freedom that cannot be destroyed by anybody and cannot be taken away by anybody is of the spirit. Myths and legends, arcane testimonies to a spiritual reality, are only a symbolic language transmitting universal cosmological and philosophical concepts. To quote Joseph Campbell: “The old teachers knew what they were saying. Once we have learned to read again their symbolic language, it requires no more than the talent of an anthologist to let their teachings be heard.”

The ultimate conspiracy aims to keep you blind to your true self. You are an animal. You are a body. This is your assigned permanent condition. To be a body, to be nothing else, to stay a body. To be an animal, to be nothing else, to stay an animal. Maximise physical pleasure, minimise physical pain, that’s your only aim. Work, Consume, Breed, Obey and Die. The conspiracy behind all conspiracies is constantly working to convince you there is really nothing beyond the physical.

But when you know the real you is not a body, then you are free. You begin to see the vanity of all human pretensions. You awake to the fact that mediocre day to day physical existence is a prison. You see beyond the ugly preoccupation with possessions and the endless search for sensory pleasure. No conspiracy can confine you, for you are a spirit and you are heading for the stars.

Rejecting the materialist view of the human being, we understand the social conditioning we are subjected to caused us to lose that knowledge of who and what we really are.

The late Robert S. De Ropp in his book Self Completion vividly illustrated the condition in which humanity finds itself:

“In this state of ‘waking sleep’ humans voyaged from birth to death aboard a ship of fools. The captain was asleep, the steersman was drunk and the navigator had forgotten the aim of the voyage. Any fool on board could push the steersman aside and try to steer the ship. The great human agglomerates who call themselves nations were just as much at the mercy of the fools in their midst as were individual men and women. The Technological Titanic, modern society, was proceeding full speed ahead into the fog, but there was no one in control. Under these circumstances it would not be surprising if the vessel hit a rock or iceberg. The surprising thing was that it stayed afloat at all.”

Are we in ignorance of our true being? Has this ‘sleep’ allowed us to fall into bondage? Is the conspiracy behind all conspiracies concerned with concealing from us our true nature? The uncovering of the ultimate conspiracy means knowing we are not bodies. “Man Know Thyself” was the ancient admonition at Delphi. Does it say something to us today at the end of the twentieth century?